Karen Savage: “This is a truly amazing school”
In 1968, when Karen Savage started teaching at Takaka District High School, the world was a different place.
“In the course of my career, teachers have evolved from being instructors to being amazing multi-tasking machines,” said Karen in her retirement speech to former students and current and former colleagues last term.
“When I started out, we were encouraged to wear gowns to reinforce our authority over the students. We taught up the front on a raised platform with a desk forming a barrier between us and the students. We called the boys by their last names and any of them who stepped out of line and were sent to the deputy principal were caned ‘no questions asked’. It was very much a ‘them and us’ situation instead of a happy union. I quite liked the raised platform but only because, with the two-inch heels I always wore, it meant I could write on the top half of the blackboard,” said Karen.
“At that time, our school was totally dictated to by officials over the Hill in the Nelson Education Board. They decided things about staff appointments and when the buildings were painted and what equipment the teachers got.”
In the 1980s Golden Bay High School changed in a fundamental way. “Instead of just punishing people whose behaviour we disapproved of, we made the very brave statement: ‘We are a guidance-centred school’. A paper trail monitored student disruption but, more importantly, the cause of the behaviour was pondered upon and the student was offered support—if not a solution. Our students became characters with lives outside the classroom and we used phrases like “developing the whole person”. We identified students’ talents as well as their shortcomings. Education became a collaborative thing and teachers became facilitators, not bullying disciplinarians. We listened rather than talked, and guided rather than directed. School became a positive, happy place for students and teachers. Parents became part of the equation too, partly because of the reforms put in place by the Tomorrow’s Schools report.”
Karen said that she had great admiration for the principals who implemented these changes.
“Bev Jensen did an amazing job in this respect and must have lost a lot of sleep as she changed the culture of our school.”
At the end-of-term assembly, Karen told the students that her work had been her pleasure and her hobby.
“For 40 years I’ve got up and thought, ‘Cool. School today.’ I enjoy a challenge—something that generates adrenalin,” she said. “I need variety in my day and I like to help others to make changes in their lives. I need to have choices in my life, be my own person and be amongst colleagues. I need job satisfaction and I need to be very busy. My job has given me all these - and a happy life.”
She shared with the students three statements that she said she regularly quoted: “If you love your job, you never work”, “Takaka is a great place to come back to”, and “This is a truly amazing school”.
In the latter part of her career, Karen has been responsible for the careers education department. This has seen her co-ordinating STAR courses, where students get a taste of training in a trade or occupation of their choice, and other programmes designed to assist students to make smooth transitions into the world of work. Karen has also been instrumental in getting a huge range of representatives from tertiary education providers into the school on an annual basis. Plenty of former Golden Bay students are currently studying in institutions they may not otherwise have known about had it not been for one of Karen’s Tertiary Education Evenings and their associated advice.
Karen said she had encouraged students to make good choices about what they did with their education and their lives. “Don’t let social pressures, your friends, your girlfriend or boyfriend or lack of wit deter you from moving away to where you will find the work, training and challenge that best suits you.
“When you are trained, experienced, or exhausted from travelling, you can come back, happy in the knowledge that you are in a special place of natural beauty and unique community values.”
Neil Wilson
